South African Reporter Provides The World With A Lesson On Interviewing

Andrew Sullivan and Radley Balko point their readers in the direction of this astoundingly wonderful confrontational interview between Chris Barron, of South Africa's Sunday Times, and Johannesburg Mayor Amos Masondo.

Barron is apparently the sort of reporter who dispenses with pleasantries very quickly:

Is Joburg ready for the World Cup?

I think we are

What about the potholes?

We are addressing that problem.

What about the trenches that are left open for months for people to fall into?

Hey, yeah! What about those dangerous, gaping trenches? "That's one of the big problems," Masondo replies.

The interview goes on and on like this, with Barron angrily interrogating over piles of trash that are just laying all over the city, and "blocked stormwater drains," and the lack of good public transportation: "The current mayor of London goes to work on a bicycle...Do you think you might use a bicycle one day?" The whole thing concludes with Barron directly questioning Masondo on his legitimacy as a public official:

Do you know of any other world-class city where an unelected mayor has been in office for 10 years?

Unelected? What do you mean by that?

That you haven't been elected.

I'm sure you know that the political system is different in South Africa. I get elected by the councillors of Johannesburg.

In other words you're deployed by the ANC, not elected by the people?

If you want to criticise the ANC and bash it, do so. But don't try funny tricks. That won't get us anywhere.

I get the feeling that Barron isn't too concerned about cultivating "friend-sources" to give him "scooplets."

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Comments

[Murewa]

08:21 AM on 05/01/2010

What you call good interviewing looks to me like hostile payback accrued from the historical differences in South Africa's apartheid past.

The reporter asks; "Do you know of any other world-class city where an unelected mayor has been in office for 10 years?"
He knows how mayors are elected in South Africa; by the councillors, much as the US President is elected by an Electoral Collage. Yet, he pretends this mayor has just imposed himself on the city. He asks a constitutional question to someone who is equiped only to answer pothole questions!

I am suprised that Linkins, Sullivan and Balko would use a white South African reporter harassing a black mayor as the epitome of journalistic excellence! These gentlemen should be aware of the racial dynamics that is SA to realise that what might appear as a bold challenge to government in that country is usually disguised white rage at losing political power.

Whites in SA still control ALL media, 90% of the economy and are the prefered reference point by the west. Lost in all this is that the 75% black majority that is still struggling to emerge from the apartheid handicap is hardly allowed room to express and opinion in these white media (except when its to disparage the common enemy, black political leadership)

[Ngonyama]

02:11 PM on 04/23/2010

One would have hoped that South Africans would do a little less thinking with their skins and a bit more with their brains, 16 years after Apartheid. All brains are gray, you know. Thinking with the skin does not enhance a persons judgment whatever its color. It also does not fit potholes.

It does have the advantage that you are never wrong or responsible, because there is always this other South African that is the guilty one. Real handy that, of course.

Nkosi sikele bonke abantu baseMzantsi Afrika

[Philani-Lubanyana]

10:10 AM on 04/23/2010

We need to distinguish between robust reporting and reporting with a hidden agenda, fortunately South Africa recognized and value media freedom and unfortunately certain media houses in our country uses media freedom to drive imperialism agenda. I’m pretty sure that there is no reporter in SA who doesn’t understand our political system of electing political representatives; we elected political parties and political parties elected candidates. So to suggest that His Excellence Mayor of Johannesburg Comrade Amos Masondo is unelected is a gross misrepresentation of truth and is mischievous with an intent of damaging African democratic processes. [e-mail] Africa

[Ray Hartley]

11:47 AM on 04/22/2010

I am the editor of the Sunday Times, Johannesburg, which publishes Chris Barron's Q&A column. It is a weekly feature in our Review section and I can assure you that Barron subjects all his interview subjects to the same steely scrutiny. What is interesting is that, despite this, South Africa's elite is more than willing to be interviewed by Barron, which bodes well for attitudes to a strong independent media.

[Murewa]

08:29 AM on 05/01/2010

Ray, I have read your articles. Dumber than that Barron guy you employ. You base your stories on innuendo, unreliable sources and a political agenda than is removed from what the majority wants.

Instead of getting excitable about one of your reporters being a subject in American media, you need to concern yourself about the fact that both you and Barron do not seem to understand the constitution of the country within which you operate!

How is the mayor of Joburg unelected when your system specifies that he should be chosen by the councillors whom the people elect?

Besides being hostile to black aspirations, are you guys also anarchist? SA teabaggers who ignore parts of the constitution that you do not like?

[Edwin Matlapeng]

11:22 AM on 05/17/2010

ray, there is a difference between subjecting people to scrutiny and and asking downright silly questions! chris barron is one of the few idiots who expects more than 500 years of colonial rule, apartheid and downright disenfranchisement of a people to be undone in 16 years! this from a a so-called highly regarded journalist of the biggest weekly paper in the country. it goes to show what we are still subjected to after all this hardship. reading the paper in out country you would bet we have total anarchy and the country is ungovernable! we are hosting the world cup in a month!
talk about sour grapes!

[GravitonX]

06:20 AM on 04/22/2010

Still can't get over those days when Apartheid made everything "nice and pretty."

[Ngonyama]

02:25 PM on 04/23/2010

Maybe try a little harder? After all people who choose to live in the past usually do not have much of a future. Nor do they deserve one.

[DucksnDrakes]

04:32 AM on 04/22/2010

So interesting that posts here show that HP's checker of bad words is yet to register "Boer" or the K-word. Anyway, welcome to Edwin and other South Africans of uncertain abilities in reading, spelling and writing who don't often visit here 'cos they're so busy on facebook and the like commiserating with each other how bad the whites are and how affirmative action has not yet made them rich enough.

Anyway, as a decades-long resident of Johannesburg, what the Sunday Times interview really highlights is this: Political hacks are appointed to jobs they cannot do; it's an objective, verifiable fact that they are unable to maintain and deliver basic municipal services, but just brilliant at "racial transformation", visions, missions, change management, marketing and spending money. Right at this minute many of the streets are strewn with rotting food and other rubbish because authorities took two weeks to resolve a labour strike over relatively straightforward issues. Hardly a "world class African city".

The tourism slogan is: South Africa: It's possible. This missing words at the end are " . . . but unlikely".

[rlcapps]

03:40 AM on 04/23/2010

so down there it's like the whites try to rule the blacks and if they aren't then the blacks are trying to rule the whites? I gotta say if the white people down there don't like blacks it seems like a bad spot to live, Africa has a lot of black folks I hear. What happened? I mean white people make up like 10% of the population I'm guessing, so instead of trying to take over the government and be king of the blacks maybe all the white people could just move back to where the white people they like so much make up a majority of the population and are already running the government. Heck all the work is done for you. And you'll be far away from all those incompetent black folks who don't know how to run their country.

[natturnerx]

01:29 AM on 04/22/2010

you dont provide us with the context to evaluate if barron is a good journalist or not. you give us an example of him conducting a confontational interview with a politician from one side of the political spectrum, but you leave unanswered the question of whether he is equally diligent when the interviewee is from the other side of the spectrum. the info above is as incomplete as if i were totally uninformed about american journalists & you provided me with a snippet of an interview of glen beck interviewing the mayor of detroit. that would certainly be a confrontational interview, & based on that alone i might conclude that beck was a topnotch journalist, not aware that beck is equally likely to give a creampuff interview to sarah palin. so all we know is that barron gives confrontational interviews to black, left-of-center politicians. thats all we know.

[rlcapps]

02:39 AM on 04/22/2010

I agree this is not a story at all. It's like, "Hey check this out." The journalist seemed to ask a bunch of random questions that was obviously an attempt to catch this politician off guard. The question is does this politician need to be caught off guard to get a straight answer or does the journalist have an axe to grind and is he trying to make him look stupid. Of course since there isn't a background or prologue to this story we have no context with which to base an answer to this question. So until then this is not a story. Just a sentence fragment compared to a complete paragraph.

[cinesimon]

03:38 AM on 04/22/2010

There are a lot of links within the article. They are the words with different colors.
As for your "this isn't a story at all" - that's kinda the point? Or do you need to be told things with a beginning, middle and end in every single piece you read, or you won't get it? You can't do a little bit of clicking to find out for your self?
I'm sure if this article had all the required context within it, it would be so long, you'd complaining about that too.
Not a story.
Please.

'Once upon a time, there were once a lot of very lazy citizens who believed it was the job of the journalist to tell them exactly everything they needed to know within one article, therefore providing all context needed for them to form an opinion...'
In other words, you want journos to do your thinking for you.

[cinesimon]

03:35 AM on 04/22/2010

Are you aware that there are links all over the article providing context?
They're the words that area different color.

[natturnerx]

04:07 AM on 04/22/2010

actually the links provide no context at all, since they are simply links to the one interview that linkins speaks of, & the point of my comment is that the assertion that barron is a good journalist cannot be supported based on this one interview. the context that i speak of is an elaboration of how barron interviews subjects of various political persuasions. (apparently you just looked at the pretty colors & didnt actually click on them.)

[iLoveGiraffes]

01:25 AM on 04/22/2010

They don't deserve to hold the World Cup. This is going to be worse than the Canadian Deathlympics.

[GSR]

02:24 AM on 04/22/2010

Another desperately ugly replicunt raises its head above the parapet.

[iLoveGiraffes]

02:52 AM on 04/22/2010

Quit defending the racist South Africans and their AIDS epidemic.

[clsez]

11:15 PM on 04/21/2010

SA had better create a critical mass of journalists like this to educate the masses who are guilty of supporting the Zumas and Malemas so they stop falling for that crap. They are the US equivalent of the Palins and Becks when what SA needs more than anything right now, are Obamas and Chen Shui-bians running their every offices and a populace more like South Koreans than Sierra Leonis

[Midnightbreeze]

02:29 AM on 04/22/2010

We don't have an equivalent of Zuma and Malemas, thankfully. Glen isn't a politician, and I'm sure Palin would at least keep the city clean, if only for an event.

What South Africa needs is a DeKlerk, not an Obama.

[clsez]

04:23 AM on 04/22/2010

Oh definitely not a DeKlerk. Too much baggage and no inspirational or racial capital to engage those who are supposed to join in constructive expansion of the economy, responsible engagement in civic duty and an economic construct to house the hopes of the people. Obama is the inspiration to Chens pragmatic economic acumen.

[GravitonX]

09:05 AM on 04/22/2010

It needs Apartheid too. Ploink!

[variousletters]

10:50 PM on 04/21/2010

Luckily, the US has spent a lot of time and energy cultivating a system which does not allow for despicable, question-asking journalists like Barron to enter the media.

God Bless Amurrka!

[Midnightbreeze]

02:32 AM on 04/22/2010

Go back to your Mike Stewart show.

[variousletters]

11:36 AM on 04/22/2010

Although I'm sure your allusion is very obscure and, therefore, hip, I have no idea what you're talking about. Who is Mike Stewart and what show does he have?

BTW - I like your display picture (I'm being sincere).

[ask0]

09:08 PM on 04/21/2010

I
A "real" journalist

[FarOutFish]

08:29 PM on 04/21/2010

It's sad American Journalism has gone from Edward R. Murrow's "Harvest of Shame" to Martha Stewart's "Harvest of Fame."

[booker52]

08:09 PM on 04/21/2010

Love it, love his style, right to the point and none of the dancing around or asking the same question ten different ways, like the answer would change.

[AristotlePA]

06:15 PM on 04/21/2010

This is some interview, this guy deserves full props for this. I wanted to fly to South Africa to watch and if possible, take my father who's great fan of the game, but this all will have to wait. The Mundial will be a testing ground for the ANC government there, they have to get their ducks in a row no matter what.

[coco51]

05:56 PM on 04/21/2010

ah, Boers still can't handle their contempt for South Africans (Kaffirs)

[mjb5406]

08:36 PM on 04/21/2010

It's racist remarks like yours that stir up the problems. You're obviously a Malema fan.

[ask0]

09:06 PM on 04/21/2010

So if you are white and you are critical of certain facts and truths and point them out to a black person that makes you a racist.?

What does that make you - Malema (South Africa version of Sarah Palin- but more violent and stupid if that was possible)

Are you also a Mugabe supporter?